1928 Romanian general election

General elections were held in Romania in December 1928. Immediately after acceding to power, the National Peasants' Party (NPP) prepared the next elections. The lists were filed before the local Courts before November 26. The dates for the elections were set as follows: the Chamber on December 12, the Universal College (Senate) on December 15, the Local/County Councils (Senate) on 17, and the Chamber of Industries and Commerce (Senate) on December 19.

1928 Romanian general election
12–19 December 1928
All 387 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
All 113 seats in the Senate
Turnout77.4% (0.4%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Iuliu Maniu Vintilă Brătianu György Bethlen
Party PNȚ-led Alliance PNL PM
Leader since 10 October 1926
(party foundation)		 24 November 1927 1 April 1926
Last election 17 S
54 D, 22.5%		 92 S
318 D, 62.7%		 1 S
15 D, 6.4%†
Seats won 105 S / 348 D 0 S / 13 D 3 S / 16 D
Seat change 88 S / 294 D 92 S / 305 D 2 S / 1 D†
Popular vote 2,208,922 D 185,939 D 172,699 D
Percentage 77.76% 6.55% 6.08%
Swing 56.7% 56.0% 0.2%†
† Participated in the previous election as the BMG,
in coalition with the PG.
Prime Minister before election

Iuliu Maniu
PNȚ

 Subsequent Prime Minister

Iuliu Maniu
PNȚ

The elections were strongly contested by the National Liberal Party (NLP). The Liberal papers ran articles like: "Organised gangs led by those that are supposed to 'organise' the elections, attack people both in towns as in the country, without any fear of authority, on the contrary...".[1] On the other hand, the NPP press claimed that "Such elections have not yet been organised in our country. For the first time ever we can see with our own eyes truly free elections. Not a single quarrel, not a single pressure, not a single involvement of the law enforcing officers."[2]

The truth was somewhere in the middle. The Liberals were right in that the NPP misused the national budget to sponsor their own electoral campaign, as well as they abusively closed many local and county Councils (for instance, the decision of closing 23 local councils in a single county, Vlașca, was invalidated at the appeal, yet the elections have not been rerun).[3] On the other hand, the NPP also had their own piece of truth, in that liberty and peace was granted more than ever before in election times (the reputed historian Iorga wrote in his journal, later to be published under the title of Memorii, for the date of December 12 a very short but relevant note: "Lifeless elections"; a similar note under the date of 15: "Dead calm elections for the Senate."), although there have been quite a few scandals, in particular during the campaign.[4]

Of the 348 Chamber seats won by the NPP list, the National Peasants' Party took 326, the Social Democratic Party took 9, the German Party took 8, the Hungarian People's Party took 2 and 3 were awarded to Jewish candidates.[5] The Social Democratic Party allocated its 9 seats to: Ioan Flueraș, Iosif Jumanca, Romulus Dan, Eftimie Gherman, Lothar Rădăceanu, Ion Mirescu, Alexandru Lucian, I. Rusnac and Iacob Pistiner.[6]

Official results

The Chamber

Simplified table of the elections' results[7]
Party, group or alliance Total votes % (per total) % (after redistribution) Seats after redistribution
National Peasants' Party 2,208,922 77.76 83.13 348
National Liberal Party 185,939 6.55 7.00 13
Magyar Party 172,699 6.08 4.57 16
Peasants' Party–Lupu 70,506 2.48 2.65 5
National Party–People's Party 70,490 2.48 2.65 5
The following parties have obtained less than 2% of the total votes, therefore they will not receive any seat.
Peasant Workers' Bloc 38,351 1.35
National-Christian Defense League 32,273 1.14
Gruparea independentă Prahova (NLP dissidence) 3,232 0.11
Gruparea independentă Constanța (NLP dissidence) 1,439 0.05
Gruparea independentă Ismail (NPP dissidence) 1,214 0.04
Gruparea Sfatul Negustoresc (Olt) 877 0.03
Gruparea independentă Botoșani (NLP dissidence) 588 0.01
Gruparea independentă Dolj 205 0.01
Gruparea independentă Storojineț 200 0.01
Gruparea independentă Fălticeni[8] 94 0.01
Gruparea independentă Gorj 62 0.01
Gruparea independentă Gorj 60 0.00
Gruparea independentă Gorj 49 0.00
Gruparea independentă Tecuci 35 0.00
Gruparea independentă Buzău 30 0.00
Gruparea independentă Fălticeni 29 0.00
Gruparea independentă Gorj 28 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 24 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 21 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 19 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 19 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 13 0.00
Gruparea independentă Roman 12 0.00

The lists comprised a total of 3,671,352 voters but only 2,840,680 of them have actually voted (~77%). Of these, 53,249 have been cancelled.

Senate

Simplified table of the results of elections held on 15th, 17th and 19th December 1928 (all Colleges)[9]
Party, group or alliance Universal College Local and County Councils Total seats
National Peasants' Party 110 52 162
Magyar Party 3 3 6
National Liberal Party 0 16 16
Senators cf. Art. 4 lit c,d[10] 0 0 16
Rightful Senators[11] 0 0 x
Totals 113 71 x

References
  1. See, for instance, Guvern de scurtă durată in Mișcarea (NLP newspaper) of December 13, 1928, or Revolverul în slujba... alegerilor in Viitorul (NLP official newspaper) of 7, as well as Alegerile "libere" of 8 December.
  2. See, for instance, Alegeri în libertate și liniște in Foaia poporului of December 16, 1928.
  3. Monitorul oficial nr. 1 of January 1, 1929, p. 44
  4. Iorga: Memorii: "Floarea, member of Peasant Party, came back badly injured at head. Like anyone coming from the 'Old Kingdom', the peasants had him well clubbed before sending him back home. One protopope yelled to him that nothing happened 'as long as he can still stand erect, this is what deserve those not voting for Maniu'." (December 17) or "Those coming from the Old Kingdom are raided in Ardeal. Poor peasants from Western regions would attack all the 'gentlemen', with no discrimination [of political views]." (November 26); Argetoianu: Memorii pentru cei de mâine, Amintiri din vremea celor de ieri: "We could not get into the country the whole 8 days we spent in Giurgiu. Whichever village we tried to enter, we have been booed by the people, whereas the Mihalache's partisans raised their clubs upon us. [...] They were ugly, having enraged faces like the beasts devoid of any sign of Romanian character, and they continuously yelled 'Long live Maniu', 'Long live Mihalache', 'Down with Brătianu'! I still think that I barely escaped a beating only because I was entirely unknown to them, these Bulgarian half-breeds".
  5. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, pp. 1610-1611 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
  6. Const.-Titel Petrescu: Socialismul în România 1835-6 septembrie 1940, no year of publication.
  7. According to the Tabloul rezumativ de rezultatul alegerilor din 12 Decemvrie 1928 pentru Adunarea Deputaților published in Monitorul oficial nr. 283 of December 19, 1928.
  8. There have been several independent lists filed in Fălticeni, Gorj and Roman - the official results table does not identify them, yet the names of their candidates was recorded in the Tabelul indicând rezultatele pe circumscripții electorale ale alegerilor pentru Adunarea Deputaților, efectuate în ziua de 12 Decemvrie 1928 published in the same Monitor oficial.
  9. According to the nominal lists published in the Monitorul oficial nr. 285 of December 21, 1928.
  10. These senators enjoy the status accorded by the Constitution and the Electoral Law. They are not elected by the people but proposed and, if necessary, elected by their own institutions. Therefore, their political colour was not disclosed in the table, although they could be members of one political party or another (one such example was C.I.C. Brătianu, proposed and elected by the Chamber of Agriculture, IIIrd Section)
  11. Their seats are provided by special provisions of the Constitution and Electoral Law. They are not elected, but appointed. Among them are, for instance, the Crown prince (only after the age of maturity), generals, legally recognised religious leaders, generals, academicians etc.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.